Hellobee Boards

I actually just watched a documentary today that kind of hammered home some stuff that I already knew but easily ignored. It was called Food Inc and it was about how industrialized our food has become. Fruits, vegetables and especially meat. I get lazy about going to the butcher for meat and will pick it up at the grocery store, but those days are OVER.

@regberadaisy: yes it is on Netflix thats where I found it. I love being a localvore as much as I can, but its for sure more work

Not me..... but when I was 11 I had a halloween party and my mom did one of those meals where you serve peeled grapes for eyes, pasta for hair, etc and told a story describing body parts. Well my sister went to the grocery store with her to shop for the party and she asked for a big cow's bone. My sister was 14, and she was so grossed out by that cows bone that she became a vegetarian. Almost 20 years later and she still is.

I guess you could say it started in college. I was fortunate enough to do my undergrad at the same university where Michael Pollan teaches, and while I never had a class with him he frequently gave public lectures that I always tried to attend. I also took an urban agriculture class that got me really into organic gardening and farming. My first job out of college was working in a community garden, both as manual labor and planning community outreach programs (garden dinners, farmer's market, etc).

Then, I moved to a place where process food didn't exist. I made everything from scratch out of necessity, and it was always really delicious. My neighbors gave me eggs from their chickens. I went to the market every day to buy produce that was picked that morning. I felt a lot more connected to things, and I loved taking the time to do it.

Now that DH & I are back living in the states, we have tried to maintain this way of eating for the most part. It is difficult sometimes, as we live on my grad school stipend which is pretty small. We make it work, though! And some things I don't ever need to make again from scratch (bagels) because they are readily available here.

just a lot of research (and now Im going to look up Michael Pollan.) When I started digging and finding out about exactly what was being fed to the animals we consume and how they were being treated, etc, we drastically changed our eating habits. Also research into how grains affect us and the fact that they were also being treated with chemicals.

Also dairy. When I saw a dairy farm conditions and found out what is in the milk, we pretty much stopped with dairy. Liv eats some cheese and yogurt for calcium, but we do NOT drink milk, and she wont have any until she is old enough to ask for it and make the decision to drink it based on the facts I give her. I dont care if others drink milk, but knowing what is in it and how those cows are treated is enough for me to say no. Not to mention it disgusts me that humans are the only species that drink another animal's milk willingly for any reason aside from survival. Ick. Creeps me out

While i always had a pretty healthy lifestyle, Fast Food Nation turned me off of fast food during my university days and Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma opened my eyes even further.

@caffeinated: And I LOVED In Defense of Food!!

@NYCaliMama: soy contains a lot of GMO,. Liv's pedi said not to give that to her either. You can get organic GMO free soy milk, but soy is still an estrogen mimicker, so its not good to give in excess. Her pedi suggested almond milk (once they are old enough) if you really need a substitute.

@regberadaisy: no I wouldn't drink raw milk... there are debates about how safe that is too. Would just rather get calcium and other vitamins and minerals elsewhere.

It's been hard for me to change my mindset on dairy because I grew up on cow's milk and up til a few years ago, drank it at least twice a day, everyday. But the dairy industry has changed since I was a kid, so we've just moved on.

@LivsMama: thanks for the info on soy.